2017 Bethel City Council Candidate Raymond “Thor” Williams

Raymond "Thor" Williams has served on the Council and as Mayor in the past. After six years he's seeking to return.

Credit Christine Trudeau / KYUK

Raymond Williams, or “Thor” as he’s commonly known, first served on City Council back in 1996.

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“My interest was to help our community,” said Thor. “I wanted to make it a better place for our children to be raised; looked at activities for our children to do.”

Now he’s back running for another term. He says that the issue of substance abuse is linked to the safety of children.

“I think there are some issues within our community that need to be addressed with inebriates walking around in our businesses, walking around our streets. People in our community are concerned because they’re no longer wanting our children to play in our parks and have recreation due to the inebriates,” said Thor.

Thor is an Opioid Case Manager for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation. He served on council for eight and a half years: from 1996 to 1998, from 2003 to 2006 with two of those years as mayor, and again from 2010 to 2011.

If elected, he plans to direct some attention toward Bethel’s roads.

“I guess that’s one of my pet peeves is that the roads need to be maintained again,” said Thor. “We have a state highway that’s really unusable again and we have streets in our community that are just pounding our suspensions out of our vehicles.”

Williams says that he also aims to improve water and wastewater services.

“I’m now paying over $400 for 4000 gallons, and I’m not getting 4000 gallons, so I think I‘m subsidizing the water and sewer project myself and for other parts in this community, and I think that’s still ridiculous in this time and place,” said Thor.